The Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Income Support (Amendments) Regulations 1995

Amendment of regulation 5 of the Housing Benefit Regulations

2.—(1) Regulation 5 of the Housing Benefit Regulations (circumstances in which a person is or is not to be treated as occupying a dwelling as his home) shall be amended as follows.

(2) After paragraph (7A)(1), there shall be inserted the following paragraphs—

“(7B) This paragraph shall apply to a person who enters residential accommodation—

(a)for the purpose of ascertaining whether the accommodation suits hisneeds, and

(b)with the intention of returning to the dwelling which is normally occupied by him as his home should, in the event, the residential accommodation prove not to suit his needs, and

(c)while the part of the dwelling which is normally occupied by him as his home is not let, or as the case may be, sublet.

(7C) A person to whom paragraph (7B) applies shall be treated as if he is occupying the dwelling he normally occupies as his home for a period not exceeding, subject to an overall limit of 52 weeks on the absence from that home, 13 weeks beginning from the first day he enters a residential accommodation.”.

(3) In paragraph (8)—

(a)at the beginning there shall be inserted the words “Subject to paragraph (8C),”;

(b)for the words “a period not exceeding 52 weeks” there shall be substituted the words “a period not exceeding 13 weeks beginning from the first day of that absence from the home”; and

(c)in sub-paragraph (c), for the words from “52 weeks” to the end there shall be substituted the words “13 weeks.”.

(4) After paragraph (8A)(2) there shall be inserted the following paragraphs—

“(8B) This paragraph shall apply to a person who is temporarily absent from the dwelling he normally occupies as his home (“absence”), if—

(a)he intends to return to occupy the dwelling as his home; and

(b)while the part of the dwelling which is normally occupied by him has not been let, or as the case may be, sublet; and

(c)he is—

(i)detained in custody on remand pending trial or, as a condition of bail, required to reside in a hostel approved under section 27(1) of the Probation Services Act 1993(3), or, as the case may be, detained pending sentence upon conviction, or

(ii)resident in a hospital or similar institution as a patient, or

(iii)undergoing, or as the case may be, his partner or his dependent child is undergoing, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, medical treatment, or medically approved convalescence, in accommodation other than residential accommodation, or

(iv)following, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, a training course, or

(v)undertaking medically approved care of a person residing in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, or

(vi)undertaking the care of a child whose parent or guardian is temporarily absent from the dwelling normally occupied by that parent or guardian for the purpose of receiving medically approved care or medical treatment, or

(vii)a person who is, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, receiving medically approved care provided in accommodation other than residential accommodation, or

(viii)a student to whom paragraph (3) or (5)(b) or regulation 48A(1)(4) (circumstances in which certain students are treated as not liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling) does not apply, or

(ix)a person who is receiving care provided in residential accommodation other than a person to whom paragraph (7B) applies, or

(x)a person who has left the dwelling he occupies as his home through fear of violence, in that dwelling, or by a person who was formerly a member of the family of the person first mentioned, and to whom paragraph (5)(a) or (7A) does not apply; and

(d)the period of his absence is unlikely to exceed 52 weeks or, in exceptional circumstances, is unlikely substantially to exceed that period.

(8C) A person to whom paragraph (8B) applies shall be treated as occupying the dwelling he normally occupies at his home during any period of absence not exceeding 52 weeks beginning from the first day of that absence.”.

(5) In paragraph (9) (interpretation)—

(a)before the definition of “patient”, there shall be inserted—

““medically approved” means certified by a medical practitioner;”; and

(b)in sub-paragraph (g), for the words “Housing Corporation established by the Housing Act 1964” there shall be substituted the words “Scottish Homes established by the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988(5)”.